Breaking: Mad Cow In California

Breaking: The USDA has identified Mad Cow Disease in a dead cow in California. The beef did not enter the food chain, according to the USDA. Bloomberg quotes John Clifford, the organization’s chief veterinarian.

The animal was found at a rendering facility, Clifford said. Its meat did not enter the food chain and the carcass will be destroyed, Clifford said. This is the fourth confirmed case of the brain-wasting disease in the U.S. cattle herd since the first was discovered in December 2003 in an animal that came from Canada.

Mad Cow Disease primarily impacts cattle but has the potential to sicken humans if it enters the food chain. Wikipedia:

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of four to five years, all breeds being equally susceptible.The disease may be most easily transmitted to human beings by eating food contaminated with the brain, spinal cord or digestive tract of infected carcasses.